Free Links and Maps

Adding a free map page to your web site

Multimap.com offers simple, easy-to-implement links from your pages to our map pages as a free service. The only information you need about a location is its full postcode. You place the postcode in the URL, and we use this as the centre-point of the map. Click here to automatically generate your link.

PostCode Coverage

Multimap.com holds postcode data for all of Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). Coverage does not extend, at present, to Channel Islands, Scillies, etc. If you wish to create maps for places in these areas then you will need to use the grid reference rather than the postcode to locate the map.

Example Map...

The postcode of BBC Broadcasting House in London is W1A 1AA. To open a full-screen map showing Broadcasting House, would use the following URL:

http://www.multimap.com/p/browse.cgi?pc=W1A1AA

(Click on this link then try changing the postcode in the URL to generate a new map.)

Making a link on your site to a free map...

If you are happy editing HTML tags then you can go right ahead and add a map hyperlink to your page.

(If you are not familiar with HTML scroll down to the step by step instructions below.)

For example, to incorporate a link to the above map in your own page, you would use this hyperlink HTML tag:

<a href="http://www.multimap.com/p/browse.cgi?pc=W1A1AA">BBC Map</a>

You might like to set the title for the page, perhaps to “Broadcasting House”. For this, add title=Broadcasting+House to the URL, not forgetting to turn any spaces into + signs.

So, now you just need to copy this tag and paste it into the HTML for your page where you want the map link to appear. Then change the postcode from W1A1AA to the postcode of the place you want to show, change the title to the title you want to use, and change the words “BBC Map” to something appropriate for your page. And that's all there is to it.

That's all very well, but I don't know HTML...

If you are using an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, PageMill or HotMetal then you might have created your web site without knowing much about the HTML language behind web sites. While a detailed knowledge of HTML is not essential to be able to add a map page to your site it is helpful to know the basics. See HTML by Example for more help with HTML.

STEP 1: HAVE A LOOK AT YOUR HTML

WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors, such as those above, all have the option to “view HTML” or “Edit HTML source”, usually under the “View” or “Edit” menu. Select this option and you will see a page with lots of unrecognisable text and codes between < and > characters. This is the HTML description of your page. Scroll up and down the page and try to get an idea of which bits of HTML are doing what on your page ( this is where having had a look at a site that explains HTML will be helpful). Then close the HTML page.

STEP 2: ADD A TEXT MARKER FOR YOUR MAP LINK

To add the map page link to your own site you will need to paste the above HTML tag, edited to link to your postcode and title, into the HTML code for your page.

The simplest method of making sure that you do this in the right place is to create a unique piece of text in your web page at the location you want the map link to appear. Use something unique like “Map link here”.

STEP 3: COPY THE TAG ABOVE

Now go back up to the example tag for the BBC location above, select it all from <a to /a> and copy it.

Then go back to your web editor and select the “Edit HTML” option, or equivalent. Then find your marker text in the HTML code, select it and paste the map link over it.

STEP 4: EDIT THE LINK

The final step is to edit the link so that it displays your map:
Change W1A1AA to your postcode, remembering to remove spaces;
Change Broadcasting+House to your map title;
Change BBC Map to the text that you want to appear on the page as the link to the map.

Close the HTML page and save the file.

STEP 5: TRY IT

The final step is to test your link by clicking on it in a browser while online. If there are any problems check that you have edited the HTML correctly and that it looks the same as the example above, but with your parameters.

What About World Maps?

Multimap.com also serves global maps which you are free to link to in your web site. However, the method of specifying the map location is not via the postocde but using the Longitude and Latitude grid reference. For example, try the following link:

http://www.multimap.com/p/browse.cgi?scale=100000&lon=2.4328&lat=48.8815

Note that the URL now specifies &lon and &lat parameters. The numbers you indicate here will determine the center of the map created.

To obtain these coordinates the easiest method is to go to the world maps link on our home page and enter the place name you are interested in. If it is listed in our database a map will appear with the grid reference in the URL. You are then free to copy this URL and paste it into a hyper-link in your page.

You can also use the URL to change the scale of the map; simply add the &scale= parameter to the URL. But remember to only choose one of the scales that are available from the pull-down list.

You can also use the URL to add a red circle at your location; simply add the &gride=[Longitude of point]&gridn=[Latitude of point] to the URL.

Do you want to be listed on multimap.com?

As an additional, optional, free service to our customers we offer a listing in the local services database on our site. Any visitor to Multimap.com who opens a map which contains your postcode can then see a link back to your site. These links appear below the map under various category headings. Click here for more information about our index database and creating a link to your site on Multimap.com.

Fees

Web sites that simply embed map links in HTML documents can use our free map service at no charge, providing the links are used as shown above. This service is paid for by our banner advertising, which appears above the full-screen maps.

If you would like something beyond the free service, such as maps within your own pages, individual support and assistance, support contracts or service level agreements, these can be arranged on a fee basis. The same applies if you cannot or do not wish to link to pages with our banner ads. Please contact us for more information about these services via email, or call +44 (0)20 7430 5454.

Dos and Don'ts

UK maps are covered by a number of copyright and other restrictions that make it difficult and expensive to use them within web sites outside of services such as Multimap.com. It is therefore important that you only use this service as we have described it above.

Don't download maps and serve them from your own site. Doing so breaks our terms, will slow down your own site, and leaves you open to a variety of legal challenges.

Do remember to remove all spaces from the postcode. In general, remember that you can never have spaces within a URL - they must be turned into the + character.

Don't try to place our map pages within a frame on your site. It looks terrible on smaller screens, and doesn't display our maps or our advertisers well. If you want maps within a frame, you need to use our fee-based service.

Do ask us for any other features you would like to see. We will implement the very popular and/or very cool ones as quickly as possible.

Do experiment with different map scales.If you add &scale=100000 to the map URL after the postcode you will get a map at 1:100,000, which covers a much larger area than one at 1:10,000. Sometimes in rural areas scales above 25,000 are better than those below, which are more suited to crowded urban areas where the road density means you need to zoom in more closely. The default scale is 1:10,000.

Do tell your friends and colleagues about this service.